In the project she presents on France Musique, Liat Cohen starts from a tangible common thread: dances written for the guitar. Waltzes, Astor Piazzolla’s tango “Libertango” and the Brazilian choro “Tico-Tico” make up a programme in which the classical instrument meets popular forms. The aim is not simply to string together dance pieces: it is to show how much the guitar can change its repertoire and colour without leaving behind its own language.
Dance as a principle for shaping a repertoire
Speaking to Sébastien Llinares on 5 November 2026, the guitarist explains that she set out to find original works for guitar based on dance. She mentions in particular the waltzes she found in the instrument’s repertoire, dating from the eighteenth century to the present day. The choice traces a journey through time, but also across continents: dance serves as a meeting point for different traditions.
The programme discussed in the interview also includes Piazzolla’s “Libertango” and “Tico-Tico”. The Brazilian piece belongs to a different world from the waltzes and tango. The programme thus brings together several ways of organising movement and of using the guitar to bring traditions into dialogue.
The guitarist describes her instrument as a meeting place for classical and popular music. This idea sheds light on how the project is put together: a piece is not chosen solely because it is well known or lively, but because it makes it possible to explore the place of dance in writing for the guitar. This repertoire also raises a question of transmission: what music has been written for the instrument, and what music can find a new form on it?
Transcribing also opens up the repertoire
This approach is part of Liat Cohen’s broader work on transcriptions and composition. A transcription adapts for the guitar a work written for another instrument or ensemble. It is not simply a change of medium: the notes have to find their place on an instrument whose strings, resonances and playing possibilities differ from those of the original.
The biography published by the guitarist mentions her transcriptions of Bach, recorded at Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey in 2003, as well as contemporary works written for her. Her recording projects also show an interest in bringing different traditions together: “Latino-Ladino” links Spanish Baroque music with South American music; “Rio-Paris”, released in 2014, pairs Brazilian repertoire with compositions setting poems by Victor Hugo. “Madrid-Paris” features operatic voices, with Rolando Villazón, Sandrine Piau and Charles Castronovo.
This journey helps explain why Cohen speaks of projects conceived around an idea and then developed with performers or composers. In the interview, she recounts, among other things, working with a researcher in Ladino music to bring together recordings, before approaching eight composers from several countries. The process turns the exploration of a repertoire into a musical commission: the sources inspire new works rather than remaining confined to an archival exercise.
A guitar spanning several traditions
Liat Cohen studied at the Paris Conservatoire, the Schola Cantorum and the École normale de musique de Paris. According to her biography, she received the Nadia Boulanger Prize from the Fondation de France and has performed with orchestras, including those of Jerusalem, Lorraine and Melbourne. These details give a sense of her career, but the thread linking her projects is less institutional than musical: broadening what can be played on the guitar and allowing works to circulate between different worlds.
Here, dance offers an accessible guide, even without any technical vocabulary. A waltz, a tango and a choro have distinct histories and uses; bringing them together around the guitar does not make them interchangeable. Instead, it invites us to listen to how the same instrument can accommodate contrasting rhythms and repertoires. The project thus reflects a question familiar to Cohen: how can the guitar repertoire be enriched by bringing existing works to wider attention and inspiring new creations?
References
The tuning gears of a classical guitar. Illustrative photo.
Credit: Original uploader and author was David.Monniaux at en.wikipedia — Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0.
